Make the prize match the audience
To lure potential customers to your site, you have to offer them something they want. Small-business Web-site-host BigStep.com, for instance, ran a Boost Your Business Sweepstakes in which the top prize was a day with a well-known small-business consultant and author. Between August 17 and September 27, anyone signing up for free site membership was automatically entered in the sweepstakes. In a previous contest, the site awarded the winner an all-expense-paid trip to a four-day conference at the Disney Institute in Florida. Although the trip was a good draw, BigStep.com decided the prize could have been a better fit. Follow-up research revealed most small-business owners would have a difficult time getting away from the office for a multiday trip.
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Get entrants to interact with your site.
A contest or sweepstakes that engages visitors has a better chance at success. BlackJack.com, sponsor of online blackjack games, plans to require users to play a free hand of blackjack before they enter future sweepstakes. And DealofDay.comââ,¬"an online bargain site that provides links, articles, and message boards about Internet shopping opportunitiesââ,¬"recently started giving company T-shirts each week to the two visitors who contribute the most to the site's DealTalk message boards. During the first several weeks of the contest, posting levels rose about 20 percent, and winners, chosen by staff members, have continued to post at significantly higher levels than average users. -
Prizes don't have to be huge to draw attention.
Sometimes, just winning is enough. The Weather Channel, for example, ran a promotion that coordinated with programming on its affiliated television channel. It invited visitors to vote for a storm of the past 100 years that should be identified as the Storm of the Century. It posted results on the site, where visitors could participate in online chats about their "favorite" storms. Even though no prizes were involved, nearly 70,000 people logged on to vote during the month-long contest.If you're offering a prize, it doesn't have to represent a small fortune. In fact, smaller amounts of cash and less expensive prizes are often enough to draw significant traffic. BlackJack.com's Eight Wonders of the World registration sweepstakes, intended to encourage new-member sign-up, cost the company only US$12,000. First prize was a US$3,000 vacation at one of the world's top eight casinos, second prize was a US$2,000 vacation, and third prize was a US$1,000 vacation. Seven runners-up each received a US$100 credit for play on the site.
